As an entrepreneur, product designer and product manager for people management and predictive analytics software, I have seen a number of problems related to creating useful products, and getting things done. I decided to keep track of some common scenarios. All views are mine. Not my employers'.

Friday, April 30, 2010

How I am taking charge of my performance appraisal process

This year at work, I created my own "Performance Appraisal Activity" in SAP Streamwork. Now, I am in-charge of my performance appraisal process. Not my HR department. Not my manager.

I added my goals and invited my appraisers to join.
I added my goals for this year to Streamwork and invited my manager to participate in the process. I also invited another colleague who guides me in the design thinking process and a product management colleague who provides a lot of inputs and shares similar goals to participate in my performance appraisal process.

I attach artifacts related to my accomplishments to my goals
One of my goals this year is to support the sales team in key pursuits to sell talent management software. In January I visited a customer and outlined the product vision of my company and convinced them that they should consider my company's talent management software. When they signed a large deal with us the account executive sent me a email thanking me for my efforts and outlined my contribution to the pursuit. I attached that email to the Goal "Support the field in 3 major sales pursuits".

I nudge my appraisers
Whenever i update the goals with comments or attachments, my appraisers get an email update. It is a signal to them that I did something I think is worthy of sharing with them. It is small nudge to let them know that I have my goals in mind and I am working towards them. They can choose to see what I updated, if they wish.

Even customers and partners can appraise me
If I want to invite some one who does not work for my company, such as a customer, to appraise me, I can do that as well. Because my performance appraisal activity is in the cloud, there is no technical restriction on who I can invite to review my work. If I am a consultant working for a customer for several months in a year, it may make perfect sense for me to invite a customer project manager to provide feedback on my performance.

My appraisers are active coaches in my pursuit to reach my goals.
My appraisers don't just watch my activity stream. They comment on my updates providing simple inputs and attaching learning resources that they think might help me towards that goal. As and when I read the document they provided or watch the video they pointed me to, I post a note thanking them and add my comments on what I learned from their inputs. It is almost like working in Facebook.

You can take charge of your performance too for free.
If this sounds like something that you would like to do as well, check out Streamwork. It is available now on the internet and is free for up to 5 activities. I just use one activity to manage my performance assessment process for the entire year.

If you like the way I use Streamwork, or have suggestions or questions please leave a comment. I will reply as soon as I can. If there are 5 or more questions on a particular topic, I may post a video to explain what I did.

Click here to reach Streamwork. Don't worry too much about the message on the home page of Streamwork saying that it is a decision support tool. Of course it helps you do that. But there are many more things you can do with Streamwork. Go ahead. Take charge of your performance.